44 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

This is the one book that I could not put down ! I read it in less than 2 days. From the first page the characters suck you in and can't wait to turn the page.
The characters for sure stay with you for a few days.
I am for looking up more from this author.
GOOD READ !

I enjoyed the journey of this book. It's a murder-mystery of types where the reader is not told every detail until the very end. Brings up themes (and questions that go along with them) of juvenile incarceration, race issues, grief. Superb plot twists.

Suspensful novel with lots of twists and turns. Two little girls banished from a birthday party find an abandoned stroller and kill the baby. They are released from "kid prison" and then another child disappears under similiar circumstances and secrets from the original crime start surfacing.

I really liked this book. I read true crime/trial/memoir type books 90 percent of the time. Im starting to read more fiction, and I think Laura Lippman is an excelent writer. Her books are not unrealistic, they are very well paced, and they keep you interested, wanting to know what happens next. This is not a "feel good" book, so if what you're looking for is a basic mystery with a predictable, happy ending, this is not for you. But I loved it, and look forward to reading more of Laura Lippman's books'.

This is one of those books that I wanted to like. I liked the premise, I liked the opening and I kept plowing through it hoping to like the story. I think there were about 200 pages too many. Characters were introduced late in the book that served no purpose. The journalist and her editor? There also was not a single likeable character in the book. I kept hoping for a dynamite ending but even that was disappointing.

I cannot say enough good things about this book! A fantastic mystery all around. Just when you think you have the story all figured out, it throws you a curve. I hated to see this book end! A definite must-read!

After 7 years locked for the disappearance and killing of an infant, 2 girls now 18 years old are released to begin a new life. Another child is missing and mother of first infant points the finger at these girls hoping for more revenge.

Pages just keep turning to see what happens and where this accusation is going.

Blah. I plodded through this book, patiently waiting for it to become either interesting or entertaining. It was neither. The characters are not developed enough to get a real feel for them (much less care about them) and the plot plays out weakly at best. Several attempts at subplots, but they sort of fizzle and are not explored. Time is precious. Use yours more wisely than I did. : )

Laura Lippman is another author recommended to me after my recent Gillian Flynn binge. She has a weighty volume of work to choose from, but I was drawn to the description of Every Secret Thing for my first .

11 year olds Ronnie and Alice are neighborhood friends unexpectedly -- and perhaps unjustly -- banished from a classmate's birthday party at the community pool. In their short walk home, a shocking crime will change both girls' lives forever. The story picks up seven years later, when both Ronnie and Alice are released from the juvenile justice system for their parts in the death of a baby girl that fateful day back in sixth grade. Both girls are deeply damaged by their experience, but trying to adjust to a new adult life and move on. However, just days after the girls move back to the neighborhood, another child disappears under ominous circumstances, and everyone involved in the old case immediately considers them suspects. To solve the new missing child case, however, they first must unravel the real story of what happened seven years ago.

I enjoyed the story, which contained some genuine surprises, but no huge mind-blowing twists. Like many books of this genre, there is a serious shortage of likeable characters, but Lippman still manages to make them interesting. However, I wish the story had not been framed within the police procedural structure. If there had been a bit less focus on the detective team, I would have been more enthusiastic, I think. I would have liked to see more through the lens of teenaged Ronnie and Alice, and maybe even more flashbacks of what happened the afternoon after the girls left the birthday party.

This book isn't among my favorite in the genre, but I'm interesting in reading more by Lippman.

No spoilers. I found this book well-written but depressing. I grew up in Baltimore; in fact my father had a business near where the action takes place. There is no character to sympathize or identify with, which made it uncomfortable to read, even though it's an engrossing tale. The ending is predictable. Read it if you're a die-hard Lippman fan, otherwise her Tess Monaghan series is better.

Two little girls banished from a birthday party encounter a stroller with an infant inside. What happens next is shocking and terrible. Seven years later Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, now eighteen are released from 'kid prison' to being their lives over again. But now another child has dissapeared.....

Page turner. Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party take a wrong turn down an unfamiliar Baltimore street-and encounter an abandoned stroller with an infant inside. What happens next is shocking and terrible, and three families are irreparably destroyed.

First book I've read by this author and I don't think I will read another. The book was slow and boring. I keep waiting for something to happen, but not much does. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Laura Lippman is another author recommended to me after my recent Gillian Flynn binge. She has a weighty volume of work to choose from, but I was drawn to the description of Every Secret Thing for my first .

11 year olds Ronnie and Alice are neighborhood friends unexpectedly -- and perhaps unjustly -- banished from a classmate's birthday party at the community pool. In their short walk home, a shocking crime will change both girls' lives forever. The story picks up seven years later, when both Ronnie and Alice are released from the juvenile justice system for their parts in the death of a baby girl that fateful day back in sixth grade. Both girls are deeply damaged by their experience, but trying to adjust to a new adult life and move on. However, just days after the girls move back to the neighborhood, another child disappears under ominous circumstances, and everyone involved in the old case immediately considers them suspects. To solve the new missing child case, however, they first must unravel the real story of what happened seven years ago.

I enjoyed the story, which contained some genuine surprises, but no huge mind-blowing twists. Like many books of this genre, there is a serious shortage of likeable characters, but Lippman still manages to make them interesting. However, I wish the story had not been framed within the police procedural structure. If there had been a bit less focus on the detective team, I would have been more enthusiastic, I think. I would have liked to see more through the lens of teenaged Ronnie and Alice, and maybe even more flashbacks of what happened the afternoon after the girls left the birthday party.

This book isn't among my favorite in the genre, but I'm interesting in reading more by Lippman.

Baltimore based detective story. Children found guilty of a crime are suspects of another crime as soon as they are released from prison as adults. Is that fair or are they easy targets /scapegoats? Since everyone tells some kind of lies, how does the truth ever get revealed?

My only frustration reading this book was wanting to get to the end and know what really happened. (In a good way!) It's not action, it's more of a psychological drama. Loved it, though. This was the first I've read by Laura Lippman, and I definitely plan to order her others.

Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party take a wrong turn down an unfamiliar Baltimore street and encounter an abaoned stroller with an infant inside. What happens next is shocking and terrible,and three families ares irreparably destroyed.
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This has been sitting in my TBR pile for way too long now, I don't think I'll ever read it, so I will pass it along.

Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party take a wrong turn down an unfamiliar Baltimore street and encounter an abandoned stroller with an infant inside. What happens next is shocking and terrible, and three families are irreparably destroyed. Seven years later, Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, now eighteen, are released from "kid prison" to begin their lives over again. But the secrets swirling around the original crime continue to haunt the parents, the lawyers, the police -- all the adults in Alice and Ronnie's lives. And now another child has disappered under freakishly similar circumstances.